Turkia Mullin files new suit, wants $112,353 more from Metro Airport

May 21, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Turkia Awada Mullin is trying to get another $112,353 from Metro Airport less than a month after an arbitrator awarded her $712,328 for being fired without cause.

Mullin filed a new lawsuit Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court asking a judge to overturn portions of Arbitrator Paul Teranes’ April 25 ruling.

In his ruling, Teranes ordered the Airport Authority to pay Mullin the balance of her three-year contract as CEO. Her contract was severed after just two months when she was fired amid a scandal surrounding the $200,000 severance payment she received when she left her job at Wayne County for the airport.

Mullin’s latest suit seeks an additional $90,466 for violations of the Wage and Fringe Benefits Act and another $21,887 in attorney fees related to a violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Teranes had dismissed the Wage and Fringe Benefits Act claim, saying he lacked jurisdiction to decide it. But Mullin’s attorney, Raymond Sterling, said it should have been included in the ruling.

“The arbitrator’s ruling was erroneous on its face because this court ordered the parties to arbitrate all claims pertaining to Mullin’s employment,” Sterling wrote in a brief to the court.

In the suit, Sterling also seeks attorney fees not included in Teranes’ ruling, though the new claim doesn’t indicate how much more in fees he wants.

Sterling didn’t return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

Airport spokesman Michael Conway said the airport planned to “vigorously defend against this new claim.”

“It appears Ms. Mullin and Mr. Sterling are not satisfied with the more than $800,000 they were awarded in binding arbitration and, rather than respect the agreed-upon arbitration process, have filed a motion with Wayne County Circuit Court seeking additional money from the Airport Authority,” Conway said in a statement. “We will continue to respect the binding arbitration to which both parties agreed.”

The airport board fired Mullin on Oct. 31, 2011, at a public meeting that followed a closed session. Her three-year contract as CEO called for her to earn $250,000 annually, a raise from the $200,000 she earned as chief development officer at Wayne County.

Scandal erupted when news of her $200,000 severance payment became public. The disclosure prompted an FBI investigation of corruption in Wayne County government, which has resulted in three guilty pleas and another conviction on corruption-related charges.